MUNCIE, Ind. — With street-paving season not quite over, the city of Muncie is preparing for winter's ice and snow.

In the past month, the city Board of Works and Public Safety has authorized street Superintendent Duke Campbell to purchase snow plow blades for the front of city trucks and a GPS system so the city can keep track of which streets have been plowed — and answer complaints about snowplowing.

Campbell on Wednesday asked the works board to purchase snow plow blades at $5,725 each from Robinson Corp. of the Eaton area. The company submitted the low quote for the plows.

In a recent meeting, Campbell asked the board to approve an agreement for a GPS tracking system for city snow plows. The system, purchased through AT&T, will cost $25,185 to set up and a recurring monthly fee of $1,677 for "real time" tracking that will not only determine if a street has been plowed, but also if another driver must take a pass at the same route or if a plow driver knocked down a mailbox.

Campbell told The Star Press on Wednesday that the initial GPS hardware for the city's 12 snow plows had been delivered.

"We get phone calls saying, 'You haven't plowed our road,'" Campbell said. "With this, we can look to see if the route has been plowed." Drivers can also look at their plowing route to determine if it can be done more quickly and efficiently, he added.

The city has 346 miles of streets to maintain and plow.

Campbell said the city has 2,500 tons of salt and two 500-gallon tanks of a beet juice mixture on hand to begin the winter season.

"We're still paving," Campbell said, citing White River Boulevard as the most recent major paving project.

The city can continue paving until the air temperature and road surface temperature routinely falls below 48 degrees, Campbell said.

One paving project likely to wait until 2018 as part of the city's two-year plan: West Jackson Street, Campbell said. That's because Vectren, the natural gas utility, plans to make cuts to the pavement in the coming months and the city wants to wait until that work is done to pave.

Keith Roysdon is government watchdog reporter for The Star Press. Contact him at 765-213-5828 and kroysdon@muncie.gannett.com.